


night-light

by ShowMeAHero



Category: IT (1990), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Amputee Eddie Kaspbrak, Babies, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26514799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShowMeAHero/pseuds/ShowMeAHero
Summary: “Hi,” Eddie says quietly. Dani’s crying has softened to whimpers, now. Enough that he knows Richie can hear him, even if he doesn’t lift his head.Richie keeps humming to Dani, head bowed over hers. He casts her face in shadow from the nightlight. Eddie’s shadow falls over her, too, as he comes to sit beside Richie, cross-legged on the floor beside her crib.“Everything okay?” Eddie asks.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 18
Kudos: 81
Collections: it (1990) one-shots





	night-light

**Author's Note:**

> written based off a prompt i got on tumblr that read: _"you posted about how 90s miniseries reddie with a baby was exciting you so[maybe you could use that as a prompt??"](https://andillwriteyouatragedy.tumblr.com/post/629531564957679616/you-posted-about-how-90s-miniseries-reddie-with-a)_

Eddie’s been a light sleeper for years. He credits it to his long-standing fear of his mother walking in, maybe, or maybe born of his experiences with the monsters that can live in the dark.

When a sharp cry pierces the dark, quiet silence of their house at two in the morning, he jerks bolt upright, heart pounding in his chest. He clutches his throat, then shoves his hand through his hair before he gets a grip. When he turns to look to Richie, to see if he’s awake and if he’s witnessed this, he doesn’t find him. He’s alone in their bed again.

Eddie flops backwards and buries his face in his pillow, just for a moment. He digs his forehead in before he drags himself up and out of bed, fumbling for his glasses on his nightstand in the dark. He nearly knocks over a lamp, but he manages not to cause any major damage to their bedroom on his path. His dressing gown has disappeared from the post at the end of their bed, so he goes in just the long nightshirt he’d worn to bed, stolen from Richie long ago.

The crying has slowed down, but Eddie keeps going anyways. The nursery’s only just down the hall from their bedroom; it’s not hard to find in the darkness, familiar from having walked it at night many times over the last few weeks.

Eddie pushes the door open and peeks inside. The whole room is cast in the golden glow from the nightlight. It’s just enough for Eddie to see Richie by as he sits back down on the ground, shushing their daughter as he tucks her against his chest. Eddie shuts the door softly behind himself, leaning back against it, hand bent back around the doorknob.

“Hi,” Eddie says quietly. Dani’s crying has softened to whimpers, now. Enough that he knows Richie can hear him, even if he doesn’t lift his head.

Richie keeps humming to Dani, head bowed over hers. He casts her face in shadow from the nightlight. Eddie’s shadow falls over her, too, as he comes to sit beside Richie, cross-legged on the floor beside her crib.

“Everything okay?” Eddie asks. Richie nods, stroking her hair back over and over, small strawberry-blonde curls that wind around his fingertips as he brushes through them. “Were you sleeping in here again?”

“Yeah,” Richie answers finally, voice rasping. He clears his throat carefully, trying to keep quiet. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Eddie says. He bends his knees up and rests his head on them, leaning his cheek there and tilting his head as he looks them over. Richie doesn’t look up, still. Eddie takes it upon himself to reach across and wind his fingers around Richie’s wrist. “Hey. It’s okay.”

“I had a dream about her again,” Richie confesses. “I wanted to come check on her, you know. Listen to her breathe. Make sure she’s alright.”

“I know.” Eddie turns so he can kneel closer to Richie, dropping his head on Richie’s shoulder. When he reaches for Dani, Richie hesitates, just for a moment, before he shifts to turn her over. He has to twist to make the transfer, tucking her into the crook of Eddie’s arm for him, but they’re getting better and better at the maneuver.

Dani doesn’t fuss at the swap, but she does grab Eddie’s hair in her fist and holds fast. Richie has to pry each of her fingers off one by one to release him.

“You know you can’t stay in here, though, honey,” Eddie adds quietly. He keeps his eyes down on Dani, stroking her face with his thumb and forefinger, caressing around the outer edges in slow circles, up and down. She blinks slowly at him, dark-green eyes getting bleary with exhaustion again.

“I know,” Richie echoes. “I just…” Richie trails off, hesitates. He pauses, leaning into Eddie’s side, his own face turned down enough to watch Dani, too. “I just don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“I know you don’t,” Eddie says, “I know. But we can’t… Richie, we  _ can’t—” _

“I don’t want to,” Richie tells him. “I don’t want to— to get so paranoid that I just, I don’t know, fall apart? That I sleep on her floor until she realizes that I’m— that I’m just like—”

“Stop,” Eddie cuts him off. “Honey, you haven’t done anything wrong. I just want you to get some rest, that’s all.”

Richie nods, tipping back against the bars of the crib. His makeshift bed on the floor is about the same as it has been the last couple of weeks that he’s been doing this, ever since she moved out to the crib. Eddie nudges the pillow and bundled blankets out of their way so he can tuck closer under Richie’s arm.

When he pushes the blankets away with the side of his foot, he sees his dressing gown all wrapped up in them, tangled with the sheets and the pillow. He smiles, just a little bit, before tilting in to kiss Richie’s cheek.

“Want to go back to bed?” Eddie asks. Richie hesitates. “We can bring her.”

“A bunch of the books said she’s supposed to be sleeping on her own,” Richie says. Eddie keeps stroking her face where he can reach, over and over, in circles around the outside of her face. He can see her edging closer and closer to sleep.

“I think it’s okay tonight,” Eddie tells him. Richie climbs to his feet, stretches all six-and-a-half feet of him up and above Eddie before he crouches down to carefully help him stand without jostling Dani.

Richie guides Eddie back down the hall with one hand on his shoulder. He doesn’t stumble or trip at all on his way back to their bedroom; Richie keeps him on a steady, clear path, safe and sound. It leaves Eddie free to watch Dani’s face as they walk. She’s still drowsy, her eyes closed longer than they are open, even though she keeps fighting her way back awake to watch him in return.

The longer it’s been since Eddie lost his arm, the more adept he’s become at operating with only one. He can still hold Dani close, still stroke her hair and kiss her face just as easily as if he’d had two hands, and Richie keeps them from falling over. Eddie scoots back on their bed until he’s back against the pillows, waiting to get comfortable until Richie’s joined him.

Richie peels their covers back, slides under them. He has a moment of fidgeting with blankets and pillows before he apparently decides they’re just right, and he pulls Eddie under his arm, kissing the side of his head.

“How is she?” Richie asks.

“Just about asleep,” Eddie whispers back. “She sleeps like you do.”

“Like I used to,” Richie amends. Eddie hums softly, stroking Dani’s round, freckled cheeks slowly, tracing his fingertip around the edges of her lips, her tiny nose, her light eyebrows. She just keeps falling asleep, lulled by his touch in the warm darkness.

Eddie starts dozing back off himself, head resting heavily in the middle space between Richie’s shoulder and the steady, thumping beat of his heart in his chest. He’s content in the quiet, just watching Dani’s face, falling asleep with his eyes on her.

“How are  _ you?”  _ Richie asks quietly. Eddie blinks his eyes back open, his pulse jolting, knocking him back from the edge of falling asleep.

“Me?” Eddie asks. “I’m okay, Rich.”

“Really?” Richie asks. “You’re  _ really  _ okay? You promise?”

Eddie frowns, brow furrowing as he tips his head back on Richie’s shoulder to make eye contact with him. “What do you mean?”

Richie hesitates again, then asks, “Hell, I don’t know, Eds, I’m sorry. Just tired, I guess. Sorry.”

“No, no, I…” Eddie stops, then shifts up a bit, leaning in just enough that he can kiss the hinge of Richie’s jaw. His kiss trails to the soft underside before slipping down his neck and back to his chest, where Eddie buries his face again. Richie rubs his back, his shoulder, then up into his hair; he kisses him, there, at the crown of his head. Eddie smiles. “I just didn’t know what you meant, that’s all. I love you.”

“I love you,” Richie replies. His arm around Eddie trails down to Dani’s forehead. He runs his thumb across her brow, slow. “And you.”

“We’re both okay, Richie,” Eddie tells him. “We’ll both be here when you wake up in the morning.”

Richie nods. He helps Eddie shifts Dani up onto her belly, shuffles them both down in the pillows until they’re just mostly-horizontal, propped up enough to stay close, Dani’s head resting on Eddie’s shoulder. He keeps his hand on her back, fingers spread to wrap around and hold her close.

Eddie’s just starting to fall asleep when Richie’s fingertips trail up the back of his wrist, slowly, carefully. He settles his hand over Eddie’s on Dani’s back, threading their fingers together lightly. Nearly asleep, Eddie smiles, squeezing Richie’s hand lightly, thumb stroking over the soft fabric of Dani’s pajamas, falling into slow sleep just like her.

**Author's Note:**

> You can (and should!) come chat with me on Twitter at [@nicole__mello](https://twitter.com/nicole__mello) (new @!) and/or on Tumblr at [andillwriteyouatragedy](http://andillwriteyouatragedy.tumblr.com/).


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